Album of Eve, Reviews

[AudioDoctor]

Jill Scott is, well, I am not sure what she is, but I own a few of her albums, on CD and vinyl. Very worth listening to.

 

[wgscott]

Since my name differs but one letter, maybe I should learn to appreciate ...

 

[Paul R]

That could be a truly frightening thing to witness... (grin)

 

Go for it Bill! -Paul

 

[crisnee]

Love: Forever Changes

 

 

 

For some reason this cover went missing from my earlier triptych, and since it's the best of the trio in music and possible in cover, here it is.

 

-Chris

 

 

 

 

 

[curmudgeon]

Nice to see some Jill Scott appreciation out there. About a month ago, just happened that Netflix sent Jill Scott: Live In Paris (2008) my way, and we liked it so well that it (a new copy, actually) now is a permanent part of my video library, to supplement the audio stuff in the collection. A must-see for Jill Scott fans, and highly recommended even if you're not, or haven't experienced her brand of soul poetry.

 

 

[squarebab]

After letting the two disc Blu-ray set sit on my media shelf for a year I finally sat down and watched the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's 25th Anniversary Concert. I have never smiled as much when watching a recorded music event as I did watching this almost four-hour long amazing video.

 

The highlights for me are many:

1.old man Jerry Lee Lewis kicking over his piano bench after singing "Great Balls of Fire".

2.Bonnie Raitt's beautiful singing of "Love Has No Pride" with CS&N.

3.Stevie Wonder's emotional version of Micheal Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel".

4.Paul Simon's sublime rendition of "Here Comes The Sun" with David Crosby and Graham Nash.

5.Ozzy Osboune's manic playfulness during his appearance with Metallica.

6.Everything U2 did.

7.Everything Jeff Beck did.

8.Everything Bruce Springsteen did.

 

I apologize for the "everything" comments, but I don't feel I am gifted enough to write about the performances of U2, Beck, and Springsteen. If pressed I would say that Beck is ethereal, and Bruce and Bono are spiritualists: Beck gives you the feeling you are in a cathedral and Bruce & Bono make you feel like you are at a revival meeting, with Rock and Roll being the path to salvation.

 

There are many other highlights, such as Sam Moore's evident joy at being onstage, and Tom Morello's sci-fi sonics, but I don't want to drag this review on any further. Just give it a watch.

 

Immediately after viewing I ripped the audio and listened to it again. The first disc was outstanding, but the second disc is the jewel that shines. It's a 24bit, 48kHz recording, so it will be worth your time.

 

 

 

 

[crisnee]

Hey -square,

 

Nice, I'll definitely see if I can take a look/listen.

 

BTW, don't feel like you have to write a great review, even though some folks have. The real point of this thread is to let everyone know about music you really like, and what you like about it. That's it.

 

-Chris

 

 

[wpauge]

I was just introduced to this disc tonight: Il Volo - Il Volo. Incredible voices for three teenagers and really well recorded. Wikepedia calls the musical style Pop Opera (Popera), whatever its called its wonderful. Great music and great voices.

 

Keep enjoying the music, cheers Bill.

 

[crisnee]

Fred Neil, The Many Sides of Fred Neil

 

This is more about Fred Neil than the particular album. The album is a compilation of his best stuff and then some. His best individual albums are "Bleecker & MacDougal" and "Fred Neil."

 

 

 

He's was a folkie and cult follow. He's best not known for the wonderful lead song to the film "Midnight Cowboy," "Everybody's Talkin'." Nilsson was credited with it and sang it for the movie.

 

His songs are simple, often bluesy "Sweet Cocaine", melancholy "Wild Child," "FaretheWell," gentle "I've got a Secret," about life and the ocean "The Dolphins," funny self pity "Blues on the Ceiling," "That's the Bag I'm In." Just a wonderful assortment of songs.

 

And then there's his voice. WOW. It is big, deep, resonant, wide ranging and so expressive. If you really want to be impressed by that instrument, listen to the beginning of "Please Send me Someone to Love."

 

Nice instruments too. His chiming guitar and fine sidemen. Guitars, bass, harmonica at times.

 

If you like folk music at all, or expressive singing, you're a fool not to give this guy a listen. You don't find many like him.

 

I may be a little prejudiced, but I don't think so. I've known his music since the beginning as I lived very close by in Coconut Grove, Miami during his best years and heard him quite often. He's not well known because he was not into promotion, he really just wanted to play his music and sail and be near the ocean. He made a few trips to N.Y.C. to try, but no go. He never really "made" it. He died in 2001.

 

The sound on the album is variable, mostly quite good, but the master tapes or whatever tapes it's taken from must not have been in great shape as there are glitches and dropouts here and there.

 

I noticed that one of the albums had a remaster available so maybe that would be better, I doubt they'd pump up the volume on this folkie. If I remember right the "Many Sides..." is on MOG.

 

-Chris

 

[Brian A]

Thanks for the great recommendations on this thread.

 

Here are a few recent purchases (why, now that I am into computer audio, am I now buying so many CDs??).

 

I particularly like the Herbie Mann.

 

 

[curmudgeon]

ARTIST: Carlos Montoya

ALBUM: Flamenco Fire

 

I have been hearing my rip of one of my very oldest and most cherished of vinyl LPs. I've actually made several rips of Flamenco Fire, the first several years ago via an internal sound card and a software kludge, and the latest using Audacity software and a USB phono preamp. Finally, I got something fairly listenable.

 

I bought this mono LP around 1957 or 1958, I think. (I'm no spring chicken, here.) A high school music teacher played some flamenco one day, and I had to have some of the intense excitement for my very own. Knowing nothing more about Montoya, I made my purchase, sound unheard. To this day, when a track comes up in random shuffle mode on my iPod or Sansa, I can still feel some of that old excitement, and when I rev up the old turntable, it really comes alive.

 

Montoya, I have been told, was considered a bit of a maverick and a deviate from traditional flamenco guitar playing, though I have no idea what that really means. Has always sounded great to me, very improvisational and in the moment. Two or three tracks are particular standouts as they include vocals and dancing, especially the Buleria track, featuring the Spanish gypsy singer Tere Maya, who comes to an incredible climax of counter-time hand-clapping. I have heard that Montoya was an inspiration and influence for the Gipsy Kings (see http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Album-Evening#comment-126342).

 

As an aside, photography devotees such as myself may also be interested to know that the album cover portrait was made by Roy DeCarava, one of the most important African/Jamaican-American photographers of the last half of the 20th century.

 

 

foobar2000 1.1.9 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.0

log date: 2012-03-02 12:49:43

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Analyzed: carlos montoya / flamenco fire [vinyl rip]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

DR Peak RMS Duration Track

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DR14 -0.18 dB -19.93 dB 4:59 01-temas en farruca [themes of farruca]

DR14 -2.52 dB -20.09 dB 4:47 02-melodias de jerez [alegrias]

DR13 -3.09 dB -20.03 dB 4:08 03-buleria

DR14 -0.56 dB -17.59 dB 2:35 04-compas flamenco

DR15 -2.19 dB -21.79 dB 4:32 05-ecos de sierra nevada

DR14 -0.18 dB -18.41 dB 4:17 06-chufla

DR13 -3.69 dB -20.85 dB 5:34 07-tientos gitanos

DR15 -0.61 dB -19.25 dB 3:19 08-bolera y corralera

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Number of tracks: 8

Official DR value: DR14

 

Samplerate: 44100 Hz

Channels: 2

Bits per sample: 16

Bitrate: 756 kbps

Codec: FLAC

 

 

[Brian A]

I have been a fan from a long time back and was lucky enough to have a 5th row center seat at one of his recitals about 25 years ago. It was awesome.

 

All of his recordings I own are crappy sound quality. Awful. I just ordered this, remastered in 2011. I am hopeful.

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Flamenco-Carlos-Montoya/dp/B00026W2M6/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1332257061&sr=1-1

 

Regarding the photography, that Harry Belafonte album cover I posted earlier in this thread was shot by Lee Friedlander.

 

[curmudgeon]

Let us know how your new Montoya turns out. I would love to have some of this music that sounds halfway decent.

 

Lee Friedlander? I did a workshop with him many, many years ago!

 

[crisnee]

"Let us know how your new Montoya turns out"

 

This is what MOG (and possibly other sites) is so good for. They have quite a few of his albums. A good place to check them out to see if you like them and what their SQ is like.

 

-Chris

 

[curmudgeon]

ARTIST: Esperanza Spalding

ALBUM: Junjo

 

Guess I was late to the E.S. party. I first became aware of Esperanza Spalding one night as she was featured and interviewed on the PBS NewsHour. I was immediately smitten, utterly seduced by her soothing but forthright voice, her diminutive figure bravely commanding the bass that seemed to tower over her, her serious hair. The next few hours were spent tearing up YouTube for some of her performances, and I quickly fired off an order for Chamber Music Society. That album soon became one of my most played, especially when I wanted to truly relax and pretend that she had elected to personally sing me to sleep. Not only did I find her own compositions remarkable, but I loved her covers, like the immortal "Wild Is The Wind" (now falling in place as my second favorite rendering after Nina Simone's, certainly eclipsing Johnny Mathis' ...). Then I was to learn that one of her key mentors was Thara Memory, with whom my aspiring jazz woodwind-ist teenage daughter workshopped. And just a few weeks or months later, she was hit with her richly-deserved Grammy.

 

After many listenings of that album, I turned to seek out other E.S. work, and came upon the earlier Junjo. This has now become my favorite Spalding recording -- so far, anyway. I love this album. Latin/Brazilian-flavored, featuring mostly Esperanza's wordless brand of scat singing and her deft bass playing. Throughout she is supported by some truly marvelous percussion (Francisco Mela) and piano (Aruán Ortiz) that is good enough in itself to cover the price of admission. I can listen to Junjo over and over again. Eventually, I expect to seek out everything E.S. has committed to a soundtrack.

 

Soon I should be receiving my order of her brand-new release, Radio Music Society, but am oddly in no great hurry as I am almost content to keep on savoring Junjo. Plus, it makes my modest audio system sound better than I ever expected!

 

 

 

foobar2000 1.1.9 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.0

log date: 2012-03-19 18:26:52

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Analyzed: Esperanza Spalding / Junjo

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

DR Peak RMS Duration Track

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DR12 0.00 dB -15.43 dB 7:57 01-The Peacocks

DR11 0.00 dB -14.81 dB 5:07 02-Loro

DR15 0.00 dB -19.02 dB 5:51 03-Humpty Dumpty

DR13 0.00 dB -16.36 dB 7:51 04-Mompouana

DR15 -2.00 dB -23.20 dB 3:39 05-Perazua un

DR14 -1.33 dB -18.91 dB 5:14 06-Junjo

DR14 -5.00 dB -25.13 dB 4:56 07-Cantora De Yala

DR17 0.00 dB -21.62 dB 6:59 08-Two Bad

DR17 0.00 dB -21.29 dB 1:33 09-Perazela

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Number of tracks: 9

Official DR value: DR14

 

Samplerate: 44100 Hz

Channels: 2

Bits per sample: 16

Bitrate: 1412 kbps

Codec: FLAC

 

[Brian A]

I listened to my new 2 CD set “Carlos Montoya - Aires Flamencos”. Unfortunately, I can’t recommend it.

 

The sound quality is tinny and brittle and is inconsistent from track-to-track. There are no hidden gems.

 

Montoya’s detractors groan about how “showy” his style was and accuse him of pandering to foreign audiences. The selections on these CDs play to this stereotype as all tracks are frenetically paced, percussive things with none of the detail, phrasing and counterpoint that I enjoy in the best of Montoya’s performances.

 

It is unclear when these recordings were made. They are all dated 1979, but based on the recording inconsistency between tracks, I find this unlikely. The release date of the CD is 2004. Montoya died in 1993. Fortunately, the used copy I bought was only $6.

 

 

EDIT (3 weeks later):

I've since listened to these CD again (via headphones). While sound quality is not very good, I want to back off a little on my criticism of performance quality. A lot of what are on these CDs is archetypical Montoya. Yeah, it can get a little bombastic, but Flamenco is intentionally showy.

[Brian A]

I've just returned from an endless evening flying from Amsterdam to San Francisco and listened to a bunch of stuff via my beloved iPod.

 

A new acquisition I listened to was “Ian and Sylvia’s Greatest Hits” from the early 1960s. They are considered pioneers in the folk genre and apparently influenced a lot of musicians who followed them. Neil Young claims to have spent the weekly allowances his mother gave him as a youth listening to them on the jukebox at Falcon Lake. Ian and Sylvia [Tyson] themselves only achieved limited commercial success.

 

I immediately listened to Neil Young Live at Massey Hall 1971 next to see if I could hear the connection. The first two songs could have been straight out of the Ian and Sylvia songbook. The influence is very clear. However, by the third song (Old Man) Neil Young takes whatever it is beyond where Ian and Sylvia took things.

 

Although the Ian and Sylvia CD doesn’t make my “desert island” list, it is very interesting music and can recommend it. And these two CDs are worth listening to together.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Ian-Sylvia-Greatest-Hits/dp/B00000IJPS/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1335117232&sr=1-1

[crisnee]

Chris Whitley: Living with the Law

 

 

A superb album of gritty singer and guitar blues. This is one of his finest albums. It is powerful, original, melodic graphic blues. His voice ranges from a whisper to a growl and sometimes slides into an absolutely alluring falsetto. Living with the Law and Big Sky Country are the best known songs from the album but Make the Dirt Stick, Phone Call from Leavenworth and Poison Girl are also standouts for me.

 

The sound is very good. The album was released in 1991, produced by Malcolm Burns and heavily influenced by Daniel Lanois. I was lucky enough to see him live in the mid nineties along with Warren Zevon in a smallish club in Louisville. I couldn't believe my good fortune to be able to see two of my favorites in that kind of setting.

 

If you have any interest in transcendent blues plus, give this a listen.

 

-Chris